by Greg Sarris

Greg Sarris was born in Santa Rosa, California, in 1952 and educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and at Stanford University, where he earned a Ph.D. He returned to UCLA to teach American Indian and other literatures before becoming a professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In his teaching and writing, Sarris explores a multicultural world that reflects his own ancestry and upbringing. His father descends from Miwok, Pomo, and Filipino ancestors; his mother from Irish and Jewish ancestors. Adopted at birth, Sarris left his foster home as a young boy, then lived with a succession of families, some of whom he found out later were his relatives. By his junior-high and high-school years, he was spending time with Indian and Mexican gangsters on Santa Rosa’s streets. At 16 Sarris was informally adopted by Mabel McKay (1907-...